Sign of the Melting Block: This old time ice selling family business has recently been taken over by Shalla Luathaich, the grand-niece of the proprietor, who has retired to the countryside. In reality, “Shalla” is the priestess Tantra, cleric of Mallia – the dread goddess of disease – who with her three acolytes sacrificed Shalla and her grand-uncle, forged the right papers, and plan to use this business to spread disease throughout the Old City and the ships leaving for foreign ports.
Venturers’ Guild Hall: This five-story wood-and-stucco building houses sailors and harbor pilots; fishermen have their own Guild and are not welcome here. Non-able seamen are discouraged from hanging around save for entrepreneurs or sea captains hiring for voyages (and pay a fee to the Guild for the privilege). Membership costs a gold sovereign, which is taken out of the wages of a sailor’s first voyage. The annual tithe is 15 silver sinvers or 10% of a sailor’s wages (whichever is higher), and that too is deducted from seafaring pay; captains who mislead the Guild in order to mulct this are harshly treated if caught, and blackballed on a second offense.
On the first floor is a large lounge where captains and officers gather, and where a large cork board tracks known shipping. There is an administrative office, where a wall covered with cubbyholes hold messages for passing vessels. The Guildmaster’s office is comfortable and kitschy, with the walls covered with nautical bric-a-brac, there’s cabling instead of moulding, and so on.
Most of the second floor is taken up by a meeting hall where Venturers can hold rallies, and there is a separately run teahouse on the 2nd floor balcony upon which the sailors take tea and shoot the breeze.
On the third and fourth floors, low cost (and mediocre quality) food and beds for seamen are available barracks style. Supervising the barracks hall is Salty Leofri, a former bosun’s mate. The fifth floor has modest “lockers” for long service mariners, with room for a bed, table, chair and seachest and not much more. Notables include:
Seldon val Troon, Dorval’s half-brother, is the Guildmaster, a position of enormous political influence and the reason why the val Troon family have plucked this plum. Seldon is a qualified captain, but has his post far more for reasons of politicking than any other, and he is quite good at it. A lean, hearty man who loves life. He asserts his title for all its worth in public politicking, but never here or among his guildmates.
Nath “Hawkeye” val Troon, son of Seldon, is the chief harbor pilot. In this post through nepotism, he is tolerated largely because pilot posts are seen as sinecures for elderly do-nothings and because Hawkeye is a genial, popular man with a reputation as a bladesman, and puts less work than he could into administrative duties (in consequence, the master piloting logs are indifferently kept).
Cap’n Dolan Hide is the cheerful, swarthy son of a Lohvian merchant and a veteran bladesman, well off enough that he sails because he wants to do so. He cons the Windrose, a 70' fast schooner outfitted for the tea trade and noted for being weatherly. The Windrose sports no visible cannon, but her swivel guns shoot lightning, not bullets.
Gwythar the Knife is Dolan’s first mate, a giant of mortalendic blood. He is a skilled helmsman, but an unbelievable knife thrower, one of the world’s best. He is festooned with knives, several enchanted and all Very Fine quality.
Vangar and Varko are twin brothers who own the Sea Lord’s Confidence, a 250 ton roundship. They take turns as captain and helmsman, and it is difficult to tell which is which; they are both equally humorless and taciturn. The Connie is a once-renowned sailer that was poorly repaired following a grounding, and a good bit of rot has set in.
Shena of Seahill captains the Black Risslaca, a shallow draft sideboard schooner with four sweeps designed for inshore and reef work. The Risslaca is a jumpy, persnickety ship requiring an attentive, attuned helmsman, which Shena is. She won’t do a knowingly illegal act (emphasis on the “knowingly”) such as smuggling or drug running, but she also asks few questions.
The Trefoil Herb: Neysa is a fairly prosperous elven blood herbalist. She has two assistants who spend their time compounding preparations in bulk for the quarter’s physicians. She is painfully aware her husband Lodos happens to be the Commodore of the Brotherhood of Renders (the great pirate cabal); they are separated and on poor terms.
The Sisterhood of Sublime Mercy Orphanage: This orphanage hosts several dozen children at any given time, and has a sour reputation in the neighborhood. The Sisterhood apparently believes in hard work for their charges, claiming it will teach them useful trades and a work ethic, and operates a nearby sharpener and brickmaking factory. They claim (not completely inaccurately) to place children in fosterage on suburban farms and in apprenticeships in the city, and hotly and persistently maintains their innocence of any wrongdoing, while maintaining (also not completely inaccurately) that they teach the children to read, write and cypher. More sinisterly, however, Mothers Mellindra and Yhantse sell a steady percentage of the better looking or stronger children as slaves to illicit buyers. They have onsite a half-dozen scum guards (deliberately picking handsome, innocent looking ones) to help keep the children in line and discourage questions.
Tyraesa Square: This large public square in the northwest of the quarter has a weathered sandstone fountain so old the features of the person memorialized are no longer discernable; it is jocularly called “Old King Log” after a notoriously inept monarch of three centuries ago. The wide base of the fountain is the source of public drinking water for the poor. The square is also a popular venue for minstrel performances and street theater.
Dock Square: This square is somewhat out of the way, and peopled by the lower-class district residents, the fishing trades, and the down and out. Outsiders – the Town Watch included – will attract scrutiny, and may be harassed by local youths and wannabe thugs. There are a number of pushcarts selling various ready-to-eat foods, which is ignored by troopers as long as the thoroughfare isn’t blocked.
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